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If the comments by "dream" above here get removed, let the record note...he is advertising cannibis products for sale on a thread about people who were probably high and died in a fire...and now the city does't want anybody looking at the records.

Did anybody else see LITS AND LOTS OF NERVOUS BLINKING by the police chief before she took the mike at the very first news coference about this matter?

There needs to be a bum Enforcement agency all to itself to clean the scum off the streets and more evictions and repairs to dilapidated shithole properties and individuals in order to make way for more vibrant and productive citizens to move in to this champion city. We can Give the grime there own little part of town and move the st Vincent down there next to it, and the recycling yard as well, give them a place to be so!what sane and clean up there own shit. Agencies like police fire department housing parks and rec sanitation and others need to start to collaborate and make solutions for the taxpayers. We aren't paying them To go through to motions. Developers and likes in the public sector can start to meet with officials and form there own public agencies to make Oakland great again. Meanwhile artist who can't afford to live here can always look elsewhere. You have no right to claim residence somewhere because that's where your most comfortable. Get lost!

It is obvious this particular department is emphasizing something besides putting out fires and a whole class of warrior fire fighters have stayed away rather than pursue a job in a department where they will inevitably run afoul of the PC police.

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The police department is authorized to have 779 sworn officers, of which 746 are actually filled -- leaving 33 positions vacant. That is your "apples to apples" comparison. The total number of vacancies is 92 as I stated, which includes civilian employees such as dispatchers, crime analysts, records personnel, etc.

The source of the true data: OPD has prepared a Personnel Distribution Report for many years. It reflects reality.

The administrative report to which you link is flimflam. It says that the total sworn police positions is 685 when the City does have 746 officers. For years public discussion of OPD staffing has revolved around the number 800 officers: is that still too few (yes), will the City get to 800 soon, etc.

Anyone with experience observing Oakland government would find it highly exceptional that the City was almost fully staffed up to its budgeted police officer count. Haven't you read the routine news reports once or twice a year when a police academy graduates? The numbers always reveal that OPD is understaffed. And it has been reported many times that four or five officers on average retire and resign every month. To think that only two of our authorized police positions are vacant at a given moment is unreal.

Mr. BondGraham, consumed by your antagonism to the police department as shown in article after article, you let yourself accept a ridiculous number. Whatever the reason, the case remains that basic facts in your articles are unreliable.

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JohnNoMoniker's seems fixated on discrediting views on this matter by assigning labels to people. Fortunately, he has graduated from "trolls" and "heartless jackasses" to "conservatives" vs. "progressive and radical."

One would think that someone who truly believes in a progressive and radical agenda would be inclusionary and embrace and honor diversity of opinion rather than hurling slurs against those he disagrees with. But, perhaps there is hope.

With regards to a dozen friends being evicted - perhaps they are now out of danger. If they need a place to stay, I am confident John will care for his friends and take them in.

Unfortunately, the rants from that poster say nothing about the actual subject at hand. Perhaps he means to distract from the issue as a tactic.

John: If you read the article - it not about people living in unsafe places. The article is about people throwing "rent parties, ad-hoc concerts in auto-body garages, and all-night DJ bacchanals." My advocacy is about doing this with safety and holding those that create these events to a higher standard that helps ensure the safety of all.

The points about poorly choosing to live being in unsafe places are separate remarks and I stand by them. Last time I checked, lack of personal accountability is not part and parcel to a progressive agenda.

Can you move away from ad hominem attacks and try to focus on the issues being debated here? I suspect you do not like these debates because it means not everyone agrees with you. But, perhaps you will surprise the readers here.

Meanwhile, the managers--Derick Ion Almena and his wife--were at a hotel that night. Almost like they KNEW it wasn't safe or, more likely, there was some kind of child protective services order in place saying don't have your kids there during a party?

You just have to wonder what kind of emails might have gone back and forth...like, oh, there's this situation we heard about from Child Protective Services, and they're saying it's a fire hazard...OK, well, we haven't heard about it "officially" and you know how hard it is for artists to find SAFE SPACES to do their art...can we try to WORK WITH THEM? Another email, saying they've refused to let the building inspector inside, a reply...well, we can't really trample on their rights or invade their SAFE SPACE, let's send them a letter and ask to be allowed inside in a month, and maybe they'll do some fixes in the meantime...yeah, you really need to wonder what's in those "public" records that implicates all kinds of people and how high up those people are.

You can only assume they perished because they were trying to help people?

That's how we're different. I assume some of them were high as kits and therefore disoriented in a situation that would have been terrifying and disorienting even to somebody who wasn't high on pot, speed, you name it. You assume they were helping. I assume they were high. Hey, maybe we're both right. A couple lucky ducks managed to avoid dying because they left to go buy booze!

When the truth comes out--and it will all come out--we need to know how many of the victims had drugs in their system, and cards for Food Stamps in their wallets and purses. Including Derick Almena. Was he collecting public benefits all this time while claiming he couldn't work (sad, tragic, self-centered bipolar hoarder) and those kids, were they being put up in a hotel by child protection services before the fire? Paid for by the taxpayers? And meanwhile they were flying to Bali and buying big, hand-carved wooden beds?

The irresponsible, drug-using, public benefits sucking, bad and immature lifestyle choices...all this needs to come out in the searing light of truth.

There is a whole new level of relevant issues that need to be examined in the wake of this tragedy, and that is how many of these "artists" are working the system, getting food stamps and SSI and having their children taken care of by child protective services while partying and having fun while other, more responsible people have to work for a living.

Derrick Ion Almena and his wife...were they getting food stamps? Was he sucking down 100 percent disability for his rather obvious bipolar condition, claiming he couldn't work while managing this unsafe space, collecting rent, not fixing things...and then they'd fly off to Bali and party.

What were the kids doing in a hotel BEFORE the fire? Who was paying for that? Child protective services? Section 8? The taxpayers in some form or another?

And it's not just Derick. It's so many of these creative rebels who have their straws stuck into the great big chocolate milkshake of the system, sucking the system all day long while claiming to be such rebels...and the whole time, the system supports their bad lifestyle choices with food stamps, and disability payments, and taking care of their children in foster homes whole these irresponsible "adult children" party and smoke pot and, if they can be bothered to show up to vote, vote for an ever-larger welfare state.

When the Manson Family committed helter skelter, when the Hells Angels bashed heads at Altamount, that was the end of the era of the hippies and the free love...that was the death of the prolonged childhood of the hippy era.

Well, the grownups who believe in jobs and tightening borders and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps are taking over in January. And the "thriller love child" of Manson just marked the death of the era of Personal Non-Responsibility and privileged identity politics under Obama. The examination of what happened here, it is bigger than Oakland. The whole nation is finding symbolic meaning in what happened.

I think people need to look hard at what is DIY and what are its sensible limits.

When it comes to sewing a patch on a jacket, can I do it myself or learn to do it? Sure. When it comes to doing my own electrical work, can I? Should I? If I have NO FREAKING IDEA what I'm doing? Clearly not.

This is the ugly, deadly downside of taking DIY too far...ignoring rules and laws and focusing on fun and creativity instead of mundane, necessary WORK and being a GROWN UP.

How much of this "scene" survives by sucking public benefits out of the "system" they bash with every breath? Were Derick Almena and his wife getting food stamps? SSI for his rather obvious bipoloar condition? Were the child protective services paying for a hotel room right before the fire? Or long before that?

It's time the pendulum swung in the other direction...the direction of regulation and safety and acting like a grownup and following rules.

Did these city workers have the power to do their jobs? Or was there an unofficial "look the other way" policy and any city official who tried to do his job was going to run into the political correctness police who didn't want a crackdown on artists? It sounds like if an inspector isn't allowed inside, the inspector just goes away. Clearly, somebody is holding the leash on that inspector at a much higher level.